Backend Engineer, Security Platform
OVERVIEW
Vannevar is a defense technology company building AI to deter our adversaries. In the 21st century, conflict moves at algorithmic speed and foresight equals firepower. Our agentic AI is purpose-built to compete with China—from cross-Strait conflict to gray zone coercion. Trained on the most mission-relevant datasets in defense, our technology models adversary behavior, simulates campaigns, and recommends the best course of action to decision makers. Our AI systems are some of the most trusted in the industry and actively used on the front lines of the Indo-Pacific to keep the peace and save lives.
Exceptional technology starts with exceptional people. Vannevar is a small agile team combining world-class engineers with veteran strategists who bring deep expertise in defense and tradecraft. We’re building a company defined by mission impact, user empathy, and disciplined growth. In just three years, we grew from $3M to $80M in ARR, achieved early profitability, and reached unicorn status—proving that disruption doesn’t require an ego, and staying power doesn’t mean standing still.
ABOUT THE ROLE
At Vannevar, we’re building the next generation of mission software that powers decision-making across the national security, defense, and intelligence communities. Protecting the sensitive data and workflows behind those missions is foundational to our platform. The Security Platform team builds the authentication, authorization, and identity infrastructure that ensures the right people and services have access to the right resources—securely, reliably, and with minimal friction.
In this role, you’ll join a small, cross-functional team to own backend services, authorization engines, and data models. You’ll partner closely with product engineers, compliance and application security teams, forward deployed engineers, and mission users to build identity and access management capabilities that are intuitive, scalable, and deeply integrated into the product experience. This is a high-impact opportunity to shape how Vannevar approaches identity and permissions, build reusable platform capabilities, and enable new customer workflows across our products.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
- Drive implementation, adoption, and ongoing evolution of core platform permission infrastructure and shared services.
- Lead mission-critical projects to build and scale foundational platform auth capabilities.
- Partner closely with engineers across the organization to develop and standardize security platform solutions that address cross-product challenges.
- Collaborate with compliance and Mission stakeholders to define and enforce standards for access control, data protection, and system integrity.
- Influence architecture, technology selection, and engineering standards across the company.
- Grow your engineering skills by solving complex, high-impact problems in security platform and infrastructure systems.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
- You have 5+ years of backend development experience, including hands on experience building identity and access management systems that other product teams rely on.
- You have strong system design skills and can make thoughtful tradeoffs among performance, reliability, scalability, and cost.
- You have led cross-team technical initiatives spanning multiple systems and driven adoption through influence.
- You bring a security-first mindset and are comfortable operating with high discipline in sensitive environments.
- You communicate complex technical concepts clearly to a broad audience, including engineers, cross-functional partners, and end users.
- U.S. Person status is required, as this role requires access to U.S.-only data systems.
WHAT WE OFFER
The salary range for this position is $150,000 - $215,000 + equity. Within the range, individual pay is determined by experience, relevant education, and/or training.
- Health, dental, and vision insurance
- Remote friendly with WeWork access
- Unlimited PTO, shared downtime during the federal holiday calendar, and company-wide off time at the end of each year
- 401(k) match
- Lifestyle & wellbeing stipends
- Salary top-up during military reserve duty
- Fully paid parental leave
- Child and pet care reimbursement during travel
We are committed to protecting the privacy of all applicants. Official emails from the company will come from an @vannevarlabs.com domain. Under no circumstances will a legitimate representative from our company contact you to request passwords, financial information, or other sensitive personal data. Please be vigilant of potential scams.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
- How much does the Backend Engineer, Security Platform at Vannevar Labs pay?
- The posting lists a range of $150K–$215K per year. Ranges reflect what Vannevar Labs publicly declared on the source posting.
- Where is this Backend Engineer, Security Platform role based?
- The role is based in Remote and is open to remote candidates.
- What experience does Vannevar Labs expect for this role?
- The posting is tagged as a lead-level role, typically 7+ years of experience. Check the requirements section for specifics.
- Where is Vannevar Labs headquartered?
- Vannevar Labs is headquartered in Palo Alto, USA.
- How was this posting sourced?
- This role was pulled directly from Vannevar Labs's Greenhouse careers site. Apply links open in the employer's own ATS — no reposts or aggregator middleware.
Apply links open in the employer's official ATS. Always verify recruitment messages on the company's careers page before sharing personal information.